Stock futures rise as Tiffany jumps; lots of Fed ahead

Yellen, Dudley will speak, with Fed minutes due later

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Stock futures pointed to a modest bounce at the open on Wednesday, with investors set to scrutinize comments by Federal Reserve members and the minutes from the central bank’s most recent meeting.

Retailers are in the premarket spotlight with shares of Lowe’s Cos., Target Corp. and Tiffany & Co. rising after quarterly results.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
US:DJM4
rose 67 points, or 0.4%, to 16,404, while those for the S&P 500 index
US:SPM4
gained 7.2 points, or 0.4%, to 1,875.30. Futures for the Nasdaq-100
US:NDM4
added 12 points, or 0.3%, to 3,608.75.

Ahead of Wall Street’s open, home-improvement retailer Lowe’s
LOW, +0.73%reported first-quarter earnings of 61 cents on sales of $13.09 billion. Earnings came in ahead of analyst expectations by one penny a share, but sales missed an average estimate of $13.89 billion. Lowe’s also lifted its per-share earnings view for 2015. Shares were last down nearly 1% in premarket.

Yellen, Dudley speeches, minutes ahead

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen will deliver the commencement speech at Yankee Stadium for New York University students at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. The Fed chief is part of a busy Fed lineup for Wednesday.

New York Fed President William Dudley, who is a voting member of the Fed policy committee, will hold a quarterly press briefing on regional labor markets and economic conditions at 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

Kansas City Fed President Esther George, who is not a voting member this year, will deliver a speech in Washington on the economy and banking at 12:50 p.m. Eastern Time. Voting-member Minneapolis Fed President Kocherlakota will speak on monetary policy and the economy at the Economic Club of Minnesota at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Jerry Seib: McConnell's expensive campaign victory

(1:19)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may have beat his conservative opponent, Matt Bevin, but he did so at the expense of millions of dollars. Republicans worry that the Kentucky Senate race could be the most expensive of the Midterms, and that it may negatively impact the party's reputation.

Investors will get a look at the minutes of the latest Fed meeting at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, which could reveal details of when, and by how much, interest rates will be raised. The Fed continued to taper at its April 30 meeting, saying activity had “picked up recently” after a winter slowdown.

In overseas markets, European stocksSXXP, +0.03%
made small gains as investors kept an eye on key European Parliament elections and purchasing-manager index data due later in the week. U.K.stocksUKX, +0.41%
fell for a third day and the British pound
GBPUSD, +0.1346%
jumped against the dollar after the release of minutes from the Bank of England’s latest meeting that were viewed as hawkish.

Asian stocks posted moderate losses across the board, with the Nikkei 225 index
NIK, +0.30%
off 0.6% and the Bank of Japan leaving its monetary policy on hold at its latest meeting.

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